The invention relates to a bale collector comprising a frame provided with wheels, bale-carrying means, coupling means which are suitable for coupling the frame to a mobile baler in order to receive bales onto the carrying means from a bale outlet of the baler by way of a front end, viewed in the direction of travel of the carrying means, and also control means for taking the carrying means into a collecting state or into an unloading state, for collecting bales on the carrying means or unloading bales from the carrying and depositing them on the ground, the carrying means rollers with parallel horizontal axes, and the rollers being suitable for collecting a row of two or more bales thereon between the front end and a rear end of the carrying means.
A bale collector of this type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,010,593. The bale collector known from this document has a relatively high loading platform on which it receives bales from a baler. The bales received fall from the platform onto a conveyor at a lower level. The conveyor comprises two endless conveyor belts next to each other and at the same height, extending at right angles to the direction of travel of the collector and driven stepwise at right angles to the direction of travel, in order to form a row of bales on the belts. After a row of bales has been formed on the conveyor belts, the row is pushed by means of a bar in the opposite direction to the direction of travel onto bale-carrying means with a relatively large surface. The bale-carrying means comprise horizontal rollers, the axes of which extend at right angles to the direction of travel. The rollers are driven stepwise during loading of the bale-carrying means with rows of bales, in such a way that the rows are moved over the rollers in the opposite direction to the direction of travel. As soon as the entire receiving surface of the bale-carrying means and of the conveyor is filled with rows of bales, an unloading mechanism is put into operation, following which all collected bales are deposited on the ground.
A bale collector according to the preamble of claim 1 is also known from WO 9011007. In the case of the bale collector known from this document, the bale-carrying means consist of horizontal rollers, the axes of which run at right angles to the direction of travel. At the rear end of the bale-carrying means there is a blocking roller at a level above them. The blocking roller is provided with a conveyor screw thread. One or more rollers of the carrying means can also be provided with a conveyor screw thread. The rollers are driven in order to convey a bale received from the baler over the rollers of the bale-carrying means until it is against the blocking roller, which bale is then, or possibly simultaneously, moved by the conveyor screw thread of the rollers at right angles to the direction of travel, so that bales supplied one after another form a row of bales at right angles to the direction of travel. On completion of a row, the blocking roller is lowered, in order to convey the row of bales off the bale-carrying means. A part of the bale collector disposed further to the back can receive a number of rows of bales from the front part of the collector on a number of rollers in a horizontal plane with axes at right angles to the direction of travel and against a further blocking means, in particular a bar which can be swung away. After a suitable number of bales has been received, the blocking means of the rear part is swung away, with the result that these rows of bales are conveyed onto the ground.
There are currently balers which can produce bales of large dimensions, for example bales of straw with dimensions of 2.4 m long, 1.2 m wide and 0.7 m high, and having a weight of approximately 400 kg, or bales of silage with dimensions of 1.6 m long, 1.2 m wide and 0.7 m high, and having a weight of approximately 500 to 800 kg. On account of the large dimensions and great weights of such bales, bale collectors by means of which rows of two or more of such bales can be collected in the direction of travel and deposited on the ground essentially without spaces between the bales have not been known until now. It must be observed here that during collection, and possibly while being pushed up by following bales, such heavy bales must be prevented from exerting an unacceptably high counterpressure towards the baler, as a result of which following bales would be pressed too tightly and/or the baler would be too heavily loaded and could be damaged.